Ancient Egypt at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

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A.D.
The term A.D., probably introduced about 1,500 years ago, is an abbreviation of the Latin words “anno Domini,” or “in the year of our Lord.” A.D. refers to time measured after the year of Jesus Christ’s birth, starting with the year zero. The term B.C. (Before Christ) refers to time measured before the birth of Jesus Christ. Contemporary alternatives to these terms are B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era); the term “Common Era” itself is a modern version of the older term “Christian Era.”

amulet
An object believed to provide good fortune or protection against evil. The Egyptians wore amulets during life and buried them with the dead. Beginning in the New Kingdom (circa 1539–1075 B.C.), the number and type of funerary amulets increased; they were either placed on a mummy or sewn into the wrappings.

akh
The deceased individual, having passed judgment in the afterlife, believed to be a transformed and glorified being with the knowledge and powers to triumph over death and the challenges of the hereafter.

ankh-sign
A hieroglyph for the Egyptian word “life.”

anthropoid coffin
A human-shaped coffin, usually with a lid that reproduces the appearance of a tightly wrapped mummy with its head encased in an elaborate funerary mask.

archaeologist
A professional who excavates and/or studies material evidence remaining from past human culture such as graves, buildings, tools, and pottery.

archaism
The intentional use of past models in artistic subject matter, language, literature, architecture, clothing, and other cultural artifacts. The ancient Egyptians maintained many artistic and cultural traditions over time, but they also consciously imitated the past during certain periods. Today it is often difficult to determine whether an archaism was a deliberate reintroduction or the survival of an earlier style. Archaism may have been motivated by a desire to evoke past glories, or may have been simply an expression of admiration for earlier artistic achievements.

ba
An individual’s physical and psychic alter ego. Separated from the body at death, it was believed to reunite periodically with the mummy in the tomb and then leave mummy and tomb behind again to move about freely.

B.C.
The term B.C. (Before Christ) refers to time measured before the birth of Jesus Christ. A.D., probably introduced about 1,500 years ago, is an abbreviation of the Latin words “anno Domini,” or “in the year of our Lord.” A.D. refers to time measured after the year of Jesus Christ’s birth, starting with the year zero. Contemporary alternatives to these terms are B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era); the term “Common Era” itself is a modern version of the older term “Christian Era.”

benben
The sacred stone of the sun god in the city of Heliopolis symbolizing the primeval mound of creation. In one of the most important ancient Egyptian creation myths, the Creator god first arose from the formless waters of chaos (Nun) onto the primeval mound.

block statue
An important ancient Egyptian sculptural type featuring a man seated with knees drawn up to his chin and hands folded on top, forming a block or cube shape.

Blue Crown
The khepresh, or Blue Crown—often incorrectly termed “the war crown”—was associated with coronation, legitimacy of rule, royal renewal, and victory. Similar to a tall helmet in appearance, it was made of cloth ornamented with golden discs. See also Double Crown, Red Crown, and White Crown.

Book of the Dead
A collection of funerary spells and illustrations, often written on papyrus or linen, intended for the use and protection of the deceased in the afterlife. Developed sometime before the New Kingdom (circa 1539–1075 B.C.), these spells were also included on amulets, in tomb paintings, and in some temples.

canopic jars
An essential part of a well-appointed ancient Egyptian burial consisting of four vessels that contained the mummified intestines, stomach, liver, and lungs of the deceased.

cartonnage
Similar to papier mâche, cartonnage was a plaster medium mixed with any of a variety of strengthening agents such as linen, papyrus, or straw, and used primarily for human-shaped containers in which bodies were placed at burial. Cartonnage refers to both the material and objects made of that material.

cartouche
A French term used by Egyptologists for the ornamental oval frame that surrounds the name of a king, a queen, or a deity in inscriptions.

Coffin Texts
A collection of funerary spells usually written on the interior of wooden coffins during the Middle Kingdom (circa 2008–1630 B.C.), intended for the use and protection of the deceased in the afterlife.

conservator
A professional who studies and practices the science of preserving objects and other material evidence in museums, on excavations, and in private or commercial labs. Go behind the scenes to find out how conservators cleaned and repaired one ancient Egyptian object.

consort
Spouse or companion. An Egyptian goddess could be considered the wife of one or more male god, but she could also be seen as closely associated with but not married to one or more male god; hence goddesses are referred to as “consorts.”

Coptic
The term “Coptic” comes from the Greek word Aigyptos, which means “Egypt” and is often used to refer to Egyptian art created during the period of Roman and Byzantine occupation after the introduction of Christianity in Egypt. Some scholars prefer alternate designations such as Late Antique, Late Roman, or Early Byzantine.

cult
The rituals that centered on the worship of any given deity or the rites performed for the benefit of the dead.

cult image
The image of a deity, sometimes made of precious metals, that served as the center of daily temple rituals.

curator
A professional who is responsible for the care, study, and display of objects in a museum. Curators recommend additions to the collections and write labels, panels, and catalogues both for permanent installations and special exhibitions. (Special exhibitions include objects borrowed from and traveling to other museums.)

Delta, or Nile Delta
Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, and the name is given to things that take its triangular shape. The fan-shaped area of soil deposited where the Nile River empties into the Mediterranean Sea is called the Nile Delta.

divine temple
A building dedicated to the presence of a deity and considered to be his or her dwelling place. Sometimes a divine temple was understood as the tomb and place of rebirth of a deity, sometimes as a model of the universe at the moment of its creation by the Creator god. A temple complex was seen as a space separate from the everyday world. See also mortuary temple.

djed-pillar
An Egyptian hieroglyph for the word stability—probably a representation of a reed column.

Double Crown
The crowns associated with rulership of Lower (northern) and Upper (southern) Egypt worn together, signifying rulership of the united Two Lands. See also Blue Crown, Red Crown, and White Crown.

dynasties
A dynasty is either a line of rulers from the same family or a group that remains in power for a period of time. In regard to ancient Egypt, the term refers to specified groups of kings—outlined by the third century B.C. Egyptian priest and historian Manetho—that often correspond to family groupings. Learn more about where we get the information for a timeline of ancient Egypt or see a timeline of ancient Egyptian periods and dynasties.

Egyptologist
Someone who studies ancient Egypt and its remains.

Eye of Re
The Egyptians associated the eye of the sun god Re with several natural phenomena and goddesses, including Sakhmet and Hathor. Re’s eye could also symbolize his mother, his wife, or his daughter. As his mother, the Eye was associated with the Nile’s annual flood, perhaps likened to water breaking at childbirth. As Re’s wife, the Eye was the cooling water that tempered the sun’s burning but vital heat. Sometimes the Egyptians considered the Eye to be Re’s daughter and explained the sun’s annual motion away from Egypt towards the south and then back as her departure and return. The return of the sun and the Nile’s flood were associated with the Egyptian concept of the New Year, seen as a rebirth and recycling of creation.

faience
A synthetic compound consisting of ground quartz held together by an alkaline binder. Faience was modeled or pressed into molds and then fired to make amulets, statuettes, and other objects. Faience was usually coated with brightly colored glaze.

funerary equipment
The objects or material goods provided for the deceased in his or her burial, including the coffin, canopic jars, tomb statues, and shawabtis.

hieroglyphs
One of the scripts used to write the Egyptian language, consisting of characters or pictographs. The word “hieroglyphs” is Greek for “sacred writings;” the Egyptian words “mdu netjer” have the same meaning. There are two basic kinds of hieroglyphs: one that spells out or represents sounds (phonetic signs), and another that symbolizes ideas (sense signs). Learn more about the Egyptian language.

Hyksos
The Greek form of the Egyptian term Heka-khasut, or “rulers of foreign lands,” referring to various Near Eastern peoples who migrated to Egypt and eventually controlled certain parts of the country, primarily in the Delta, during the Second Intermediate Period (circa 1630–1539 B.C.).

isolation and reassemblage
The term used to refer to the ancient Egyptians’ combination of different views (such as frontal and profile) in single representations that was intended to help clarify the identity of an image. Learn more about isolation and reassemblage.

ka
An individual’s vital force, the total of the hereditary qualities received from one’s ancestors.

ka-statue, or tomb statue
The ka, or life force, of an individual was believed to inhabit statues of stone or wood placed in a chapel or a serdab and, through them, to partake of sustenance in the form of food offerings. The statues also provided a “spare body” in the event that the mummy was damaged.

khat-headdress (or afnet)
A royal head covering that resembles the nemes-headdress but is plainer. Unlike the nemes, the khat lacks decorative side parts (lappets), is never pleated or striped, and the material at the back is not drawn into a pigtail or queue but is left as a flap.

Lower Egypt
North of the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, the Nile River flares out into the broad Delta, a continuous horizon of land fit for cultivation. This region makes up Lower Egypt. See also Upper Egypt.

Ma‘at
The proper interaction of all inhabitants of the universe, mortal and divine; the basis of the Egyptian social order; and the right order of things in heaven, on earth, and in the afterlife. Conceived of as a goddess, Ma‘at was vital to the preservation of the universe from the chaos that surrounded it.

mastaba
Arabic for “bench,” used to describe the superstructure of Old Kingdom private tombs. All tombs that share this appearance have come to be called “mastaba” tombs.

mortuary temple
A building or room that housed rites performed on behalf of the deceased. It was also the site where the deceased was believed to continue the worship of the gods in the hereafter. Most mortuary temples were royal; very few private individuals in ancient Egypt had them. See also divine temple.

mummification
The process of preserving a deceased body by artificial means for the afterlife. Learn more about the process of mummification.

nemes-headdress
A royal head covering, made of stiff cloth pleated or banded with different colors. The nemes covers the brow and skull, has side parts (lappets) that rest on the shoulders, and is drawn together in the back to form a pigtail or queue.

Nile Delta, or Delta
Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, and the name is given to things that take its triangular shape. The fan-shaped area of soil deposited where the Nile River empties into the Mediterranean Sea is called the Nile Delta.

Nubia
Desert region and ancient kingdom in the Nile Valley that corresponds to present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Some ancient Egyptian names for Nubia are Yam, Irem, Ta-Sety, Wawat, and Kush. The Egyptians had contact with Nubia as early as the Predynastic Period (circa 4400–3100 B.C.); it was the source of many luxury goods and other economic commodities. The name Kush was used for some or all of Nubia during the New Kingdom and applied to all of Nubia during the first millennium B.C. The name Nubia first occured in the Roman Period.

obelisk
A four-sided tapering pillar of stone with a triangular top. Obelisks were based on the shape of the benben, the sacred stone of the sun god in the city of Heliopolis (north of modern Cairo).

ostrakon
A limestone shard or pottery fragment, used for writing or drawing; in essence, ancient Egyptian scrap paper.

papyrus
A paperlike material made by binding together two layers of strips of pith (a spongelike substance in the center of stems and branches) from the papyrus plant.

pectoral
An ornament—often elaborate—suspended by a cord or necklace and worn on the chest.

pharaoh
A name for an Egyptian king, derived from the Egyptian phrase Per-aa, or “great house,” referring to the royal palace. The term did not come to mean king until the New Kingdom and did not become an actual royal title until even later.

pylon
A monumental gateway with two towers flanking a lower doorway that served either as the entrance of an Egyptian temple or the passageway between one court and another.

pyramid
A structure containing or built on top of a tomb; true pyramids have four triangular sides. Step pyramids preceded true pyramids and were only built in Dynasty 3 (circa 2675–2625 B.C.) and early Dynasty 4 (circa 2625–2500 B.C.). They have several flat-topped stages, built one on the other, with each step diminishing in size.

pyramidion
The triangular tip of an obelisk, a pyramid, or a small four-sided triangular stone. Called a benbenet in Egyptian, it imitated the benben, the sacred stone of the sun god in the city of Heliopolis (north of modern Cairo).

Pyramid Texts
A collection of funerary spells found in the pyramids of the last king of Dynasty 5 (circa 2500–2350 B.C.) and several kings and queens of Dynasty 6 (circa 2350–2170 B.C.). These spells were used in different forms by private persons during later periods (see Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead).

Red Crown
The crown associated with rulership of Lower, or northern, Egypt. See also Blue Crown, Double Crown, and White Crown.

relief
In raised relief, images project out from their surface, or ground; in sunk relief, they are carved within their ground. In some periods, painted raised relief was the usual method of decoration on the inside of Egyptian tombs and temples, and sunk relief for the exterior walls. In the Amarna (circa 1352–1336 B.C.) and Ramesside (circa 1292–1075 B.C.) periods, sunk relief was used extensively for both interiors and exteriors. The use of raised relief for interiors was revived in the Third Intermediate Period (circa 1075–656 B.C.). The Egyptians may have used sunk relief—especially in hard stone—when speed and economy were considerations.

relief carving
There were three stages of decoration in relief carving. First, each scene was drawn in color on the stone surface, including the hieroglyphs in the inscription. The outline of each figure was then carved and the background cut away. A final carving of the figures softened the contour lines and sculpted the internal details.

sarcophagus
A stone coffin that is usually either rectangular or anthropoid (human-shaped).

scarab
An amulet, seal, or ring-bezel (the face of a gem or stone in a ring) in the shape of the dung beetle (Scarabaeus sacer). Scarabs were made of a variety of materials, such as faience, stone, gems, ceramic, or metal. The scarab’s basic symbolism was rebirth, but it could often have other amuletic values as well.

sed-festival
A festival of rejuvenation and renewal of powers celebrated by reigning kings, often—but not always—in their thirtieth year of rule.

serdab
An Arabic word meaning “cellar,” used for a nichelike enclosure in a tomb that housed a statue of the tomb owner.

shawabti (also shabti or ushabti)
A small mummiform funerary figurine usually inscribed with a magical spell invoking it to perform various agricultural tasks in the underworld on behalf of the deceased.

shen-ring
A hieroglyph in the form of a rope circle knotted at the bottom. The Egyptians associated the circle with eternity and with the sun disk. The shen-ring also came to symbolize protection.

shendyt-kilt
A tight-fitting garment with pleats and a trapezoidal slit in the front, shown on statues of Egyptian kings and gods. Usually a bull’s tail was shown suspended from the belt at the back.

sphinx
A mythological composite being, usually portrayed with a lion’s body and a human head, but sometimes depicted with the heads of rams or hawks. The sphinx could represent a god or a royal individual, most frequently a king.

stela (plural: stelae)
A royal or private commemorative tablet, made of stone or wood, recording a historical event, a prayer, or a tomb biography. Stelae can be square, rectangular, round-topped or have pointed tops.

tell
The Arabic word for “mound,” it appears in many modern Arabic names of Egyptian sites. Such mounds usually consist of the layered remains of cities, temples, and cemeteries that have built up over time.

temple, divine
A building dedicated to the presence of a deity and considered to be his or her dwelling place. Sometimes a divine temple was understood as the tomb and place of rebirth of a deity, sometimes as a model of the universe at the moment of its creation by the Creator god. A temple complex was seen as a space separate from the everyday world. See also mortuary temple.

temple, mortuary
A building or room that housed rites performed on behalf of the deceased. It was also the site where the deceased was believed to continue the worship of the gods in the hereafter. Most mortuary temples were royal; very few private individuals in ancient Egypt had them. See also divine temple.

Upper Egypt
From the site of Aswan, the Nile flows northward for approximately four hundred miles to a point just north of Memphis, the ancient capital. The narrow area of cultivated land flanking the Nile from Aswan to Memphis is today called Upper Egypt.

uraeus
A protective goddess in the form of a cobra, whose image was affixed to a variety of objects, primarily royal headgear.

votive offering
Object left in or near temples or other religious sites by pious individuals, either to give thanks or to accompany a request.

wedjat-eye
In Egyptian mythology, the eye of Horus was magically restored following its damage by his uncle Seth. Known as the wedjat-eye, it symbolized health, rejuvenation, and prosperity.

White Crown
The crown associated with rulership of Upper, or southern, Egypt. See also Blue Crown, Double Crown, and Red Crown.